Throughout the 2000s, Katherine Heigl was a ubiquitous presence in romantic comedies. She appeared alongside Seth Rogen in Knocked Up and Gerard Butler in The Ugly Truth, drawing some pretty poisonous reviews from both critics and audiences. Even now, a quick search for Heigl's name on Twitter leads to such gems as "once irrelevant, always irrelevant" and "nothing is certain in life but death, taxes and god awful Katherine Heigl movies". Few female stars attract the kind of ire that Heigl does. So strong is the backlash against her romcom career that even the genre is turning against her. In fact, 2011 film Friends With Benefits took great pleasure in rejecting the kind of tropes and archetypes that Heigl has been seen to represent, with Mila Kunis' character literally telling Heigl to "shut up" in one scene. With that in mind, it's incredibly odd that Heigl continues to appear on the big screen pretty consistently. She has been solidly appearing in one or two films a year since 2005, but has four releases out during the course of 2014, suggesting that her career is actually on the way up.
Freelance film journalist and fan of professional wrestling. Usually found in a darkened screening room looking for an aisle seat and telling people to put away their mobile phones. Also known to do a bit of stand-up comedy, so I'm used to the occasional heckle.
